Co-Presidents' May Message 2018
Hello Plotters,
We hope you all survived the strange deluge that was The Great Hobart Flood. In rehearsals that evening we were dancing against the violence of the storm, calm and collected in our own safe world. As just the two of us together worked both personally and professionally, there was a moment amongst the thunder where we became aware of just how much PLoT has encouraged us to grow as artists and friends. We have a shared and respectful work ethic, supporting each other through years of swapping the roles of director, producer and performer. This has deepened our friendship, as like Virgil and Dante we go down into the Underworld a second year running.
PLoT is a chance to create, for student communities to speak out and go where they want to go - instead of being told, forced, or patronised to. Running a theatre society involves shared community, active and enthusiastic playfulness, and relinquishing ego in order to be sincere and vulnerable; finding a feeling of connectedness and family.
This is a time to thank the diverse and skilful team currently keeping the organic machine of PLoT travelling to new, innovative places. Looking down our private Facebook group today, we were so proud to note that nearly every post was made by a different person in our executive team. Our little exec has become a melting pot of ideas, opening up revenues of inspiration and experience. Our fantastic resource pool involves (but is definitely not limited to!) students such as Benedicta McGeown writing her own script and producing Eurydice, Rhys Prestedge creating new networks with the UTAS Sustainability council, Lily Stojcevski involving PLoT on local radio, Bonnie Mary Liston organising fundraising opportunities across campus, Victoria Bremner and Patrick Foster for their media innovation, and more!
We would also like to thank the many mentors, friends and professionals who've shared their passion, skills and care for PLoT as much as us. Making art in this current climate is hard, but hasn't it always been? We love that challenge. We are a volunteer-based society and this gives us the space to produce shows that actually mean something to us, in our own lives and in relation to the greater community.
So Virgil and Dante shall continue to meet weekly over coffee, and dance in the storm, asking each other how we can best maintain and foster healthy theatre communities and creative relationships (and have fun while we do it).
The 2018 season is ambitious and jam packed with stories of talented and rebellious young women. Eurydice is a contentious, beautiful work exploring what it means to be defined as a young woman. This play is followed later in the year by Benedicta McGeown's original work Everything's Fine, which looks at the complexities of intergenerational trauma through the eyes of a young person negotiating their role in a family. We hope you love them both as much as we do.
Ty
Emma and Bella
(Interchangeably, Virgil & Dante)
